10 Prisoner Survival Tricks You Might Have To Use!

Prisoners of all sorts from Prisoners of War (POWs), Ghetto Prisoners, Concentration Cam Prisoners and Incarcerated Prisoners are forced to invent to make their confined, miserable, deprived conditions more adaptable.  Here are  10 Prisoner Survival Tricks You Might Have To Use!

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1. Evading And Hiding Like Critters And Escaped POWs
2. Crescent Moon Night Navigation
3. Don’t Let Em’ Know You Understand Their Language
4. Licking Cure 
5. American Prisoners Of War Getting Educated
6. American Prisoners Of War Mind-Over-Matter
7. Fighting Killer Hypothermia.
8. Prisoner Money-Makers
9. Rat Piss Killer
10. POW Killer Heart Punch
11. Prisoner Body Guard

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Evading And Hiding Like Critters And Escaped POWs.

Hiding Like A Rabbit:  American rabbits shelter at the surface level while European rabbits shelter underground.  British POWs escaped from a Nazi POW camp.  During the day, if they moved, they moved through the thick undergrowth.  When they stopped they’d hide in the thick underbrush like rabbits and always maintained noise and light discipline.  Let me pause real quick and tell you about some ways to hide.

Hide N Seek:  The only time the Army let me play hide n seek like a kid and pay me for it was while attending the Army SERE Course (Survival Evasion Resistance & Escape) in Panama.  While attending the Army SERE Instructor Course in Panama, the instructors were covering classes on evasion and on-the-run hide sites.  One aspect of evasion was taking advantage of cover & concealment that vegetation offered for a quick ready-to-go hide site.

So, we broke up in small groups of 06 evaders.  06 evaders would get a 03-minute headstart and the remaining class of about 50 SERE candidates would look for the evaders.  Evaders would look for the thickest vegetation they could find and hunker down real close together.  And more times than not for only a 03-minute headstart, most evading groups were not found.

Geology:  Plus, we got a real quick class in geology (structure of Earth).  We were told if we saw giant boulders on the surface, odds are there are underground dens below.  You just have to look for entrances between the boulders.  We were taught what to look for so to hide underground!  And sure enough some evading groups found underground shelters that could fit 20 or so people!  We couldn’t find them even if they gave us several hours!  You just have to find the indicators for an underground shelter and shimmy through the giant rocks to get to the underground shelter.  Great hide sites!

1st MOST IMPORTANT NOTE:  Let me tell you an important part of hiding and evading.  “Movement attracts the eyes.”  Even to the untrained observer – “Movement attracts the eyes.”  So if you must move, during day time, travel through the thickest vegetation.  If crossing an open area, crawl – move real      s    l    o    w.

2nd MOST IMPORTANT NOTE: In one of my Survival Books –  “55+ True Incredible Mysteries” (see below) – I annotated 02 interviews on two men that I knew (Marine Force Recon & Green Beret) who ‘Mentally Disappeared’ in broad daylight to avoid capture. 

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Crescent Moon Night Navigation:  I’ve always said when you venture outdoors, NEVER venture alone and NEVER venture at night.  Start making your camp 02-hours before sunset.  OK, let’s learn on way to find direction at night if you have no compass.

While evading in the blackness of the jungle, he (evading soldier) had no access to the stars but he did use the moon for navigation.  Using the crescent moon, draw an imaginary line down from to tip of the crescent moon through the bottom tip of the crescent moon.  Continue the straight imaginary line to the horizon.  At this point is a southerly direction in the Northern Hemisphere.  I’m not sure of its general direction in the Southern Hemisphere.

Crescent Moon Night Method

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Don’t Let Em’ Know You Understand Their Language.

Do you speak a foreign language?  On many occasions, I’ve overheard folks speaking French or Spanish but I never let on that I understood them.  This way I could legally ‘ease drop’ on their conversations.  On one occasion when I was passing thru California, I heard these folks were speaking Italian.  I never took any lessons learning the Italian language but because of my French and Spanish, I understood bits and pieces of what they were saying and then understood the gist of what they were talking about.  Here’s another example of American POWs using their foreign language skills to their advantage like I have done.

Foreign Language:  The 03 US Army Special Forces POWs were knowledgeable with Vietnamese.  One was not only fluent in Vietnamese but fluent in French (common language throughout North & South Vietnam).  The men let on that they spoke a few words here and there and nothing more.  With their knowledge of the language, they could monitor their captor’s conversations and possibly use it to their advantage for escape.

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Licking Cure:  Do you have a dog?  Then you might want to perk-up your ears for this true survival story.

Army Air Corps Staff Sergeant Ray C. Hunt initially weighed in at more than 160-pounds.  Captured in the Philippines during WWII, and now on the Bataan Death March, he weighed in at a skinny and sickly 100 pounds.  He eventually escaped and now he evaded the Japanese.  Lost, he wandered into a village half dead.  They fed him and let him bathe.  SSG Hunt’s foot was in bad shape with a throbbing painful ulcer.  The ulcer spread drilling a hole in his foot down to the bone.  With decaying flesh around it, it smelled terrible.

The Filipino family had a dog who came over to smell the wound.  The dog attempted to repeatedly lick it but SSG Hunt kept kicking the dog away with his bad foot.

The Filipino woman saw this and urged him to let the dog lick his wound and so he did.  The dog’s licking hurt like crazy but he tolerated the extra pain.

As days passed with more licking by the dog, SSG Hunt was surprised that the ulcerous wound started to heal and heal fast – solely by the dog licking the wound!  In a week he saw remarkable healing progress!  Now you know your dog is more valuable besides being a friend and chasing those 9-life critters; your dog could also be a healer!

Why did this work?  Animals lick their own wounds and wounds of family critters cause their saliva contains an antiseptic (destroys disease-causing microorganisms).  Make sense uh!  The dog’s saliva contains an antiseptic.  Do humans saliva contain antiseptic?  I don’t know but I would bet it does – RFIR.

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American Prisoners of War Getting Educated.

POWs 2^nd Education:  POWs had a lot of time on their hands.  Not only did they learn about themselves but learned from other POWs.  POWs learned a second & even 3rd languages, even the language of their captors.  They learned crafts from each other and even learned through the game called ‘Five Questions.’  Their memories of their past and memory skills were noted to be greatly enhanced in their POW environments because their lives were isolated, free from their prior busy life.

Quad-Lingual:  POWs learned new languages during their captivity.  Miniature dictionaries were secretly made and hidden.  But the king linguist was Air Force Lt. Col. Robert R. Craner.  Lt. Col. Craner was captured on 20 December 1967 and released on 14 March 1973.  During his 05+ years of captivity, Lt. Col. Craner learned French, German and Spanish.  And towards the end of his captivity, he started learning Russian from Marine Cpt. Lawrence V. Friese (captured 24 February 1968 and released 14 March 1973).

Note:  I’ve been all around the world.  And most folks that I’ve met are at least bi-lingual.  I knew one US Army Special Forces soldier (Green Beret) that was born in Europe who spoke 05 languages fluently.  English was his last language and he spoke it better the me!  It’s a pity, kids in the US aren’t required to be bi-lingual at a minimum.

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American Prisoners Of War Mind-Over-Matter.

Mind-Over-Matter:  Can you imagine mentally building a boat from scratch?  Most people can barely day dream but POWs powered-up their super mind to mentally escape their POW environment.  POWs meticulously imagined – they visualized:

• Brought back long forgotten school friends
• Building boats
• Building cars
• Building houses
• Building roads
• Building tunnels brick by brick
• Cooking and eating elaborate multi-course meals
• Drilled oil wells
• Flashbacks to childhood
• Home in the US (some avoided it – homesick>>despair)
• Playing golf
• Solving mathematically problems
• Tapped out movies in Morse code
• Vacations

1st Note:  POWs were able to flashback – vividly recall memories all the way back to the age of 02 years old.  See Developing Total Recall below.

2nd Note:  Navy Cdr. Howard E. Rutledge was captured on

28 November 1965.  Cdr. Rutledge used visualizations to mentally escape thousands of hours of his POW environment.  In Cdr. Rutledge’s own words “I built five houses in my imagination during the seven years in North Vietnam.  Carefully I selected the site, then negotiated with its owners for purchase.  Personally, I cleared the ground, dug up the foundation, laid the cement, put up the walls, shingled the roof, and landscaped the property.  After I carefully furnished the home, I sold it, took my profit and began the entire process once again.”  Many other POWs mentally built their own houses spending as much as 14-hours a day at the mental task.  Some even woke-up fellow

POWs in the middle of the night tapping out questions on paneling and other building materials questions.  Cdr. Rutledge was released on 12 February 1973.

Between the Mind-Over-Matter applications, playing games, communicating with each other, POWs AVOIDED one of the enemies of survival – DESPAIR.

Developing Total Recall:  POWs memories were greatly enhanced while in their POW environments.  As Lt. Cmdr. McCain stated memory recall was easy “when you don’t have anything else to think about, no outside distractions.”

POWs developed total recall, like:

• 750 baseball players
• 750 baseball players in reverse
• Birthday attendees over the years
• Geography lessons
• Long list of POWs at different POW camps
• School courses
• Songs
• Television programs
• Vivid flashbacks to childhood or any part of their life

Note:  Scientist – researchers have stated that EVERYTHING that we experience in our life is recorded in minute detail in our subconscious.  POWs developed techniques to tap into their powerful subconscious.

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Fighting Killer Hypothermia.

Body Heat Life-Saver:  POWs were caught off-guard.  Entering the Korean war, most were wearing summer uniforms, most had no winter clothing whatsoever.  The winter of 1950-1951 recorded some bitterly cold temperatures like 36-degrees below zero.  Many lone POWs froze to death.

Other POWs in groups banded together and like Emperor penguins, hunkered close-in to each other to keep warm using their body heat.  Other pairs of POWs took rocks and dug into the frozen ground.  Digging out a shallow trench, both POWs hunkered down together using their body heat to hopefully survive one more night.  At a POW camp under Chinese control, groups of 20 to 25 POWs were crammed in a 12′ X 12′ unheated rooms.  Through their body heat they survived for the outside temperatures were recorded between 20 to 30 degrees below zero.

Straw Clothes:  Many Americans entered the Korean war with summer uniforms that were worthless in winter.  POWs suffered greatly during the winter of 1950-1951.  That winter, temperatures got down as low as 36-degrees below zero!  To stay warm, they copycatted a survival trick used by Russian POWs.  They gathered straw and stuffed it throughout their trousers and shirts.  To hold it in, they tied their pant legs at the ankles and tucked-in their shirts.

Newspaper Clothes:  When a young Special Forces soldier, I talked to a senior enlisted soldier who was caught in freak cold temperatures while riding his motorcycle cross-country.  He had no clothing to protect him from not only the cold temperatures but the freezing wind chill factor temperatures while driving at 55 mph and faster.  What did he do?

He purchased a couple newspapers and stuffed all his clothing to include his shoes with newspapers.  He had triple layers of newspapers all over his body protecting him from the killer cold temperatures.

Keep Moving:  Korean POWs were literally freezing to death.  But some POWs did the only thing they could – they kept moving.  Whether they stomped their feet, walked in circles, hopped up & down, bent back & forth, rubbed hands together, wiggled their toes inside their boots,… THEY KEPT MOVING.

When they rested or slept – or tried anyway, they’d get close with other POWs to conserve body heat.

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Prisoner Money-Makers.  Prisoners made money under great restrictions and no supportive tools.  If you have a talent or trade, imagine what you can do free with tools of your choice.

Prisoner Home-Made Paintings:  A prisoner incarcerated at Pelican Bay Prison in California decided to start a small business making postcard-size paintings.  For a paintbrush he made a brush using plastic wrap, foil and his own hair.  And for colors, he made dyes from the several colors from bags of M&Ms candies.  He separates same colored M&Ms (shell pieces) in small plastic jars, adds a little water which turns color and with a little evaporation he has paint.  You may not think this could help you in a survival situation but think about the many other uses of hair and M&Ms to satisfy the 8 Elements of Survival (Fire, Water, Shelter, First-Aid, Signal, Food, Weapons and Navigation) in a survival situation.

Civil War Money Makers:  Union guards at Elmira Prison charged civilians 15 cents a head to watch Confederate POWs suffering in their confines of Elmira.  But Confederate soldiers also earned money to pay for extra food and other comforts of prison life.  Some Confederate POWs were paid .05 cents a day digging ditches.

Other Confederate POWs were ingenious and made sellable items from scrap, shells, and wood.  Items like bracelets, rings, trinkets,…  The items were secretly sold through Union guards who took their cut of the action.

Other Confederate POWs at Johnson’s Island Prison, Lake Erie made chairs from scrap wood and old leather boots.  Leather from old boots were added to the chair’s sturdiness.  Old boot leather was cut into strips and woven to make seats for the chairs.  In many cases POWs carved their initials into the finished product.

The only tools used were jackknives.  Again, the POWs secretly used Union guards to sell their wares with the guards taking their cut.   One ingenious Confederate POW at Johnson’s Island Prison actually made a violin from scrap wood from a woodpile.

My point to this is YOU may have a talent, a trade that you can use to make some extra CASH!!

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Rat Piss Killer:  This next segment actually happened.  In recent years, people here in the US have been hospitalized for drinking from contaminated soda cans.  So I took this story and used it as a way to fight captors.

If you military types find yourself a POW getting whooped on every day and figure your days are numbered, here’s another technique to incapacitate your captors so to escape.  Odds are you already made friends with a rat and you feed the critter food and water.  Well start collecting its urine.  Even if its dried out it may still be poisonous.  Its piss may contain a bacteria, known as Leptospira interrogans.  Leptospira interrogans is a killer and if doesn’t kill your captor it will put him in ICU (Intensive Care Unit).

And if the rat’s piss doesn’t contain any Leptospira interrogans, you still may at least get your captor real sick, thus he’s out and a new “green” captor is in that you may increase your odds of escape.

Note:  For all you non-POWs out there reading this; RINSE all your newly purchased soda cans for Leptospira interrogans.  It has hospitalized and killed innocent victims after drinking from a contaminated soda can.

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POW Killer Heart Punch:  If you find yourself in a life or death fight against a scumbag criminal, consider the following ‘self-defense strike.’  While attending the US Army SERE Course (SERE Level B), we were taught the ‘heart punch.’  If you do your own research, you’ll find victims have gone down for the count when being struck in the chest.

Odds are if you’re a POW, you’ll not get fed well and will be in a weakened state – in a feeble condition.  Say you plan to escape and you’re successful and are evading.  You meet a lone enemy soldier searching for you AND THE FIGHT IS ON.  So you’re fighting for everything you got and have just enough strength for one last strike.  Where are you going to hit your opponent?  In the heart.  His cardio-vascular system is already worked-up fighting you so you have to go for the heart.  Make a fist and with all your might strike directly at your opponent’s heart (center of the chest).

With his heart already racing due to fighting you, you’ll really screw-up his racing heart with a strike (closed fist) directly to the heart.  This may cause a heart attack to your opponent due to impact on the heart while it’s rapidly pumping blood.  That’s why a defliberator (AED) applied to a live healthy person could kill them for added stimulation to an already working/pumping heart is a killer or cause irreversible heart damage.

The Heart Punch, painful Nerve Holds, Choke Hold, Sleeper Hold (not that fake crap on TV wrestling), Vagus Strike and more was taught to my SERE class to use against captors when a POW.  This stuff really works.  We were taught that killing your captor is actually a War Crime according to the Geneva Convention and the prisoner could be immediately executed.  But they taught us, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with knocking the holy crap out of our captors via the Heart Punch, painful Nerve Holds, Choke Hold, Sleeper Hold (not that fake crap on TV wrestling), Vagus Strike,…

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Prisoner Bodyguard:  Of all the ’10 prisoner survival tricks you might have to use’0, this next segment is especially for you ladies out there that have an ex-boyfriend or ex-husband out there that wants to do you harm.  Read this segment and then read my take on it at the end of this blog post.

Savvy veteran prisoners often scammed the new ‘fish’ (new prisoner) that were weak and scared but they had to insure their mark could pay their price.  Here’s how the scam worked.  A new prisoner (fish) that had money on the outside (family, friends,…) would be attacked by a couple convicts.  Another convict would intervene and chase the 02 attackers away.

The rescuing convict would tell the new ‘fish’ he needed protection and for, we’ll say $100 a month, he would provide 24-hour protection.  The word will get out that ‘if anybody messes with you they mess with me.’  It turns out the 02 attackers were in on the deal and everything was set-up to extort money out of the new fish.

Now all 03 prisoners have a little extra cash per month just on this one new prisoner.  The new fish’s brother on the outside sends in the money each month or his brother gets it!  And the scam carries over to another new ‘fish’ that’s too weak to stand up for himself and has money on the outside.

In some cases, the beaten-up prisoner may go to the guards and rat-off his attackers.  The new prisoner is then taken to an isolated part of the prison where he’ll stay.  Snitching on other prisoners is a sure death warrant.

Author’s Comment:  If you’re having problem with your ex-boyfriend or ex-husband, consider the following options and combination of options:

• Seek advice from your local law enforcement
• Seek legal advice from a lawyer (Restraining Orders)
• Legally carry, train and practice with multiple weapons (pistol, assault rifle, shotgun, mace)
• Sue your ex-boyfriend or ex-husband
• Acquire a bodyguard (new boyfriend or new husband – police officer is best)
• Without warning – MOVE out the entire region, at least a 12-hour drive away
• See “Home Invasion Self-Defense” under Crime Survival

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MOST IMPORTANT NOTE:  Now that you read & viewed ’10 Prisoner Survival Tricks You Might Have To Use’  – So You’re Ready Anytime Anywhere.  However, before you go out on your next outdoor adventure, please re-read “How To Plan Your Outdoor Adventure!”

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